These data comprise culturable cell counts in different media from soil microbial analysis within a microcosm experiment investigating moisture perturbations on microbes, set up at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Oxford. The experiment used soil turves from outside the main experimental plots at Sourhope, Scotland, collected in July 2001. Soil moisture data are also included. Data were collected as part of the NERC Soil Biodiversity Thematic Programme, established in 1999 and centred upon the intensive study of a large field experiment located at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (now the James Hutton Institute)'s farm at Sourhope in the Scottish Borders. During this time, the site was monitored to assess changes in aboveground biomass production (productivity), species composition and relative abundance (diversity). Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/999b9188-1784-497a-bdce-8fdfbd03e15b
